All's Fair
by joryuukage
Summary: Ten years ago, the Avatar died at the hands of Fire Lord Ozai himself. Hope vanished. The world was thrown into chaos. Millions of people wept for the loss of the free world. Then, with a childs trip to the South Pole, hope sprung anew.


**Water.**

**Earth.**

**Fire.**

**Air.**

**Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and the new Avatar was discovered, an Airbender named Aang. His bending skills were great, and he quickly managed to master all of the elements. Afterwards, he went to bring an end to the war, along with the friends whom he had gained in his quest to learn the elements. He faced the Great Fire Lord Ozai in one last, grand and bitter battle. The battle was fierce, and raged for hours. And finally, what they had all feared would happen, did: Lord Ozai struck down the Avatar. The battle was lost. Now, almost ten years later, a band of elite guerrilla warfare soldiers, benders and warriors from every one of the countries, fight to end the war, and win back our freedom. I had believed that Aang could save the world. I was wrong; now, we can only save ourselves.**

**--------**

"Papa!"

Zuko turned to the direction of the voice. He smiled, and bent on one knee to better receive the small boy. "Hey, little man," he said affectionately, gathering his eight-year-old son in a hug.

"Papa," the boy said, once released, "Uncle said that you're leaving again. Is that true?"

Zuko's face fell and he gave his son a sad look. "Unfortunately, Shui, yes. I'm afraid I have to. The front needs me; they look to me for guidance."

"But," Shui protested eyes large and pleading, "I've been practicing! Why do you need to leave again so soon?"

"I'm sorry," Zuko said. "But there's nothing I can do about it."

"Here, let me show you!" Shui said with a child's enthusiasm, ignoring what his father had told him, pulling away. To him, if he did well enough at this, his father would stay, instead of leaving him all alone again.

Shui took a firm stance, and glanced at his father. Happiness filled him; Zuko stood, with his arms crossed but smiling, watching. Watching _him!_

He stuck his tongue between his lips and concentrated, quickly going into a series of moves. His roundhouse kick filled the air with flame, and then he swiped upwards, producing the same result.

He was doing it! He was firebending, and really well! He hadn't made a single mistake!

Confidant, Shui took a step forward, but lost his balance and sent a fire blast right into a bush, lighting it on fire.

For a moment, Zuko only stared. The scene was oddly reminiscent of when he was younger, trying to best Azula in the throne room. Zuko shook himself free of his thoughts, and picked up a nearby bucket, used for collecting rainwater, and put out the bush.

He looked to his son, who sat on the ground, staring at the charred bush with watery eyes. He knelt next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Its fine, Shui; don't worry about it, it was just a bush."

"B-but," Shui blubbered, disappointed in himself for having made the mistake, and especially in front of his father.

"You did well," he complimented, "but you might want to work on when you shift stances. If you're not careful, things like that could happen. I made the mistake often enough when I was your age to know."

"Really?" Shui asked, looking up at his father in amazement. His father hadn't always been great at Firebending, just like him?

Zuko nodded. "If you want, I can show you the right way to do it. It took awhile for me to learn it, but once I did, it helped me every time I had to shift stances in practice."

Shui's eyes lit up with joy. He quickly sprang to his feet, nodding enthusiastically.

His father smiled, and shifted easily into the stance Shui had been in right before his blunder. Shui followed, taking the stance in parallel with his father. It had been a long time since they had practiced like this.

"Now," instructed Zuko, "the key to this is to carefully shift your weight from your whole foot, to just the balls of your feet and then to strike, before going back to being balanced." As Zuko said this, he demonstrated, doing exactly what he had said, punching the air without forming a fire blast, and going back to his balanced stance in one slow, but fluid movement.

"Understand?" Shui nodded. "Good, what I want you to do, is to go through the steps at the same speed I did, and then we'll be ready to try it for real…"

-------

_Whoosh!_

"I did it, Papa, I did it!"

Laughter greeted the man as he rounded the corner. He heard Zuko's congratulatory "You did!" and spared a small smile. Zuko really did make a fine father. Then he sobered, and drew the attention towards him. "Zuko,"

Zuko's smile fell from his face. "Shoran," he greeted. He put Shui down and stood, "What is it?"

"We've gathered what we needed. We should get going before it gets too late."

Zuko nodded, solemnly. "Alright; I'll be there ready to go in a few minutes. Tell everyone to say their goodbyes now; we won't be coming back for a while," _'Some of us not at all,'_ He added cryptically in his head, but did not voice the thought aloud. Instead he kneeled next to his son as Shoran left and looked him in the eyes. His son's sad, blue-grey eyes.

"I have to go," he said softly. He did not want to leave his son again.

"I know," Shui told him, nodding understandingly. He spread his arms wide for another hug, and Zuko complied, holding the boy tightly in his arms.

He did not want to go. "Be good," he told Shui, kissing him gently on the head. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Shui nodded again, silently, and watched as his father stood, walking back inside their house.

As sad as he was to see his father go, he knew he had to. It had happened many times before. He'd gotten used to it. But it didn't mean he liked it. Such was the downfall of your father being the leader of the resistance movement.

Shui gave a small sigh, looking briefly to the ground of the Earth Kingdom.

Perhaps he could take a bath, and then go and bother uncle…

Shui smiled.

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A/N: Well, I think this chapter turned out pretty well! Now, I just hope I can keep updating on a solid schedule. Jinx, knock on wood. I'm really going to be trying with this one, as well as the other one I'll be posting soon. I really need to get a few good, strong chapters written before it can manage to be considered AU…

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I claim to own, any rights whatsoever to Avatar: the Last Airbender. However, all original characters, as well as the plot, belong to me. )


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